It seems like every magazine and blog I read lately is filled with reprap stories. Make magazine had a Makerbot Cupcake CNC on the cover of the previous issue and CBS even did a short profile. It's time to find out what all the fuss is about.

I ordered a Cupcake a couple weeks ago and it arrived on Friday. My truck was on the fritz and the family was away so I didn't want to stray too far from the homestead. This was a perfect distraction.

So far the build has gone together very well. It goes together like something from IKEA but the tolerances are really very good considering it's made of wood. The T-nut design and the fingers of the laser cut panels make it surprisingly rigid.

I haven't gotten past the mechanical construction yet, but here's a couple pictures.

Without a doubt, I can already tell that the "hot end" is going to be the weak link. It's the white and yellow bit in the middle of the extruder assembly below. Compared to the rest of the build, this felt very DIY and kinda kludgy. I've seen a few blogs and posts of people coming up with improvements.